[Debate] Staff Abusing Powers

[edr]

I've been lucky that I have a great bunch of staff members who have recently been given full power like myself (I know, scary lol)
But I completely trust them and they were my friends first before coming that powerful.

I also haven't seen any staff members on other forums misusing their powers, but have heard stories about such things happening.

I always make sure that myself and staff agree on things before doing anything, we have little meetings on the forum or msn.

[Xtreme]

I remember one Mod in particular who was treating new members like crap. He even tried to overthrow me saying that I wasn't active and stuff. When in fact I was super-active and totally dedicated. As an administrator, you need to weed out these rebellious personalities before they become a problem. Being a simple guy, I don't like drama, never created any myself. If you don't agree with my ways, consult me, don't be a pain in the behinds. Staff members should be like a team, where there's no "I". Make sure you are hiring the right person who has shown patience and willingness to help others in the past.

[Nacku]

Ditto Ovi!

Example: "I feel it's in your best interest to do [insert whatever you're being asked to do]"

"I think it's a good idea to [insert some weird way of thinking here]"

"I believe you'd benefit from having your site be this way, instead of that way"

These all sound like innocent suggestions, don't they? But watch out! They're disguised ploys for total control. There was no "What do you think WE should do?" in any of those sentences, was there? And believe me I've been told a thousand of them! You're right for there is no I in team!

[Diego Zelaya]

I don't know abut that. Some people truly want to help out a site that they just truly love. For example, I love the World of Magic, and wish I could do more to help them out. However, every single time I try to place up a suggestion, they throw it down or something.

I kind of gave up ever trying to give out suggestions, and it is sad too really. The advertising on that site well... sucks... and could be so much better if they listened to the members of the site. It would really make the site grow so much more than it already is.

To close your ears is worse than being deaf. Open them, while you still can. That is always my moddo.

[plymouthair]

On my forum, myself and my staff certainly do not abuse our powers, for the simple reason we don't need to. We had a issue with a user sending threats around, that in my opinion was worthy of a life long ban, though i never publicized this and certainly did not embarrass the user further, since, i have had non stop emails from the user in questions, so called apologizing for their actions, though once the trust is blown i feel that i could no longer trust them again.

In some cases the contact has got right to to me, endless emails, even contacted my friends in order to get through to me. It seems pathetic in all honesty.

They don't stop at anything.

I think some mods and admins etc try to do what is best for their forum, but getting mixed up in the enthusiasm, some can take it a step to far.

But a forum as large as this, holding hundreds of people each 24hrs, i think its necessary to, not abuse powers, but to enforce rules.

Your either cut out for an admin role or your not.

As a established admin for over a year now, i have learnt what powers should be used when and were and what for.

As my story above, if i keep receiving such mass of email, some slightly rude, i think i would have to take the situation higher, and seek legal advice. Does that seem fair ?

[Nacku]

Kudos to you, plymouthair! There are admins who would take any opportunity to embarrass someone, some are more subtle though and take shots with back-handed comments.

You mentioned that your situation involved someone trying to get back into your forum using aliases...I can see that I'm not alone in experiencing that. I had someone (a stalker) actually do that along with another follower who would terrorize our yahoogroups in that way. It wasn't just signing back up under another name, she would use the group features to send spam and would create profiles that were similar to real members' profiles in an attempt to cause confusion and in-fighting.

[katzel]

Well said plymouthair.
I run some boards of my own and moderate and co-admin others.
I know of one admin who got consistently bombarded with PM's from a member which had nothing to do with the forum and trying to tell the admin who should be approved as a member.
The admin very politely pointed out the forum rules and that it was the admin's decision on the membership issue.
The member still persisted in their behavior and was eventually banned from the site.
The boards I run and the ones I'm also on I'm pleased to say treat people fairly and with courtesy and respect.
They are great bunch of people to work with.

[Nacku]

I had a co-admin who kept telling me "I think this member should be banned AND IMMEDIATELY" and would even POST that so that the member in question could SEE that. I was so frazzled by the actions of this person I *used to* trust that I couldn't even come online without fearing some drama was unfolding all around me.

I was also bombarded with PMs (and I don't mean a few letters -which I would send if I was concerned about something- I mean letters every friggin day!) LOTS of them about how I should do this and do that and how unsafe I would be if I didn't follow those orders. Nazi-Gastapo is about the best way to describe how this person was running things. And still runs things! Banning members for even being a witness to her behavior elsewhere!

Then, get this, one of the people I banned at this person's suggestion went and flamed on that person's blog after realizing her control over me was no longer as effective. Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice...it ain't gonna happen. On the plus side some people came out of the woodwork about this co-admin and joined my site. So I increased in number whereas before I was at a stagnant number.

I now have a staff that I trust, that don't badger me and that don't manipulate me into a constant state of fear AND they don't point stalkers to my domain and follow me here, there and everywhere to, you know, tell me how to do things.

So...about "STAFF Abusing Powers" it's so under the radar when they come to you as someone well-meaning and proper and turn into Satan. I remember being asked to send some letters to an admin to state my case about something, boy I was lead right into that trap! Wow, I should have seen it coming! But I didn't. But now I know how some people work and manipulate others. And I thought I'd seen it all.

who got consistently bombarded with PM's from a member which had nothing to do with the forum and trying to tell the admin who should be approved as a member.

Technically, that would have something to do with the forum. A member joining it (for whatever reason whether it is to be a real member, attack another or to simply join it to intimidate an already member) that would be relevant to the forum.

And like I said, I had a co-admin who made it her duty to tell me who can and who cannot join my forums. Glad to be rid of her. I was the one stuck in between a rock and a hard place and the band played on.

[katzel]

The admin was being bombarded with PM's about disputes about other sites and people that had absolutely nothing to do with proboards or the forum that the admin was running. (for clarification)
Membership too increased after that member was banned.
I had a member like that too at one of my boards.
This person was trying to tell me who to approve as a member.
Glad to be rid of that person.
I know of an admin that was trying to get a co-admin to pretend to be other people. That person left and I left that board too. Glad not to be a part of it anymore.
I'm pleased that I have people that I can fully trust and work with very well and don't tell me how to run my boards and I don't tell them how to run theirs.
Everything is all working smoothly.
Plus if someone is trying to tell you how to run things you don't have to listen use your own judgement.

[Nacku]

Wow. Katzel. That sounded like an attack of my post. Are you here "as another person" or was my post something that rubbed you the wrong way? WTF?

Sorry but you only seemed to repeat everything I said and laced it with something that sounded like, I dunno, something rather harsh and somewhat condescending. I'm sure the debate has been civil here with people discussing their own experiences.

I was asked by a co-admin to "pass messages along" and was caught in some weird gruesome ploy to get to someone she had a schoolgirl crush on.

[Patrick [ASE]]

May 19, 2009 14:55:21 GMT -8 Nacku said:

Wow. Katzel. That sounded like an attack of my post. Are you here "as another person" or was my post something that rubbed you the wrong way? WTF?

Sorry but you only seemed to repeat everything I said and laced it with something that sounded like, I dunno, something rather harsh and somewhat condescending. I'm sure the debate has been civil here with people discussing their own experiences.

I was asked by a co-admin to "pass messages along" and was caught in some weird gruesome ploy to get to someone she had a schoolgirl crush on.

Please keep posting civil, katzel was just talking about her experiences

[Nacku]

Sorry if it seemed I was accusing katzel of pretending to be another person. I just thought it odd that everything I stated was then repeated almost word-for-word and seemed snarky. I've never seen the name katzel before and so I thought it might be someone else. However the name isn't at all familiar to me. So I had a moment where I thought it could be a sock.

[katzel]

May 16, 2009 19:40:41 GMT -8 Xtreme said:

I remember one Mod in particular who was treating new members like crap. He even tried to overthrow me saying that I wasn't active and stuff. When in fact I was super-active and totally dedicated. As an administrator, you need to weed out these rebellious personalities before they become a problem. Being a simple guy, I don't like drama, never created any myself. If you don't agree with my ways, consult me, don't be a pain in the behinds. Staff members should be like a team, where there's no "I". Make sure you are hiring the right person who has shown patience and willingness to help others in the past.

Nicely said.
I like the part about staff members being a team and having the right people that show patience and willingness to help others.
It's interesting to note that many of us here have had similar experiences in our forums in many ways.
I find the discussions here very helpful and informative.

[banasbud]

May 19, 2009 14:19:57 GMT -8 @katzel said:

Plus if someone is trying to tell you how to run things you don't have to listen use your own judgement.

I think that's really unfair to say that. The reason why I say this is because as stated by someone else earlier, an admin can be manipulated into thinking that they have no choice but to do what is asked of them. Through the manipulation of being lead into a sense that their safety and the safety of their board is at stake. Admins who just ban people for -as you put it- bombarded them with pms seems dubious because in some way I tend to think that pms were flying back and forth rather than all one-sided and at least it was being kept offsite. Which is to me is better than dragging it out in the open which some people will do because they shout and scream and must be heard (no matter how wrong they are)
An administrator can be conned into thinking that another staff member has the answer and that's what they were going for and some people will go the extra mile to stay friends with that co admin and sooner or later find that the snake was just using them to get to a goal they were playing the original admin for.
I've known of people like that. Falling off the wagon, having a drinking problem, or not taking their meds and having some kind of mental condition that prevents them from being reasonable is one of many excuses they might use but setting out to use someone for the sole purpose to get higher up the ladder and getting to a goal and having NO PROBLEM stabbing anyone in the back for it is just .... evil.
People CAN be manipulated into things that would normally go against their better judgement. The issue of staff abusing power covers all aspects of staff abusing other staff, by way of playing them, or demoting them and kicking them off when they haven't broken any rules because they can't be controlled anymore is abuse. Plain and simple. Staff abusing members happens just as much as staff abusing staff and in that scenario is even more devastating if that member never had a voice to begin with and was banned when they voiced their voices or their concerns. In otherwords when they pipped up and finally said something. That's all I'm saying.

[Nacku]

Banasbud, LOL! Yeah some of us are easily manipulated by fear. I should be a trophy child of this considering the last six years I've been through! Lost in the night/don't wanna struggle and fight/but there's someone who needs me and all that blooie.

To bring up an issue in another site into another site from another party site is par for the course especially when the owner makes rules that state that members trashing other members on other sites (including the one they own) is grounds for removal. Now I've learned those rules can be bent and they have exceptions. Meh. But to get all upset when the issue arises is more than crazy. There is no point even pointing that out. Even with a pointer.

On the other thing you brought up about "pipping up" yeah, I did that. But I had had enough because I was told one thing over there and then another thing over thata way. Also I'd never suggest for anyone to pretend to be someone else unless they came to me and told me that they were going to do something. I'd always say "Well, do it under another name, lest you be flamed/attacked/ripped/whatever". In my heart it was like 'Don't get caught because I somehow know I'll be blamed for it' but sure enough someone can twist things and take it as 'Oh I'm sooo devious mwahaahaa' and I'm not sure if I shouldn't take that as a compliment or not. As Riddick would suggest.

Pffft! Crazy people, I tell ya! In some forums it really don't pay to pipe up. I've been on those forums where my voice certainly did NOT count and I was reminded of that and shown that in living color. Dark color. Very dark and very cold. I actually started missing the pink. No more pink! Aww shucks. Oh well. But the fact remains, when it came time to live up to the so-called community image that all voices mattered and that all members counted and their feelings were important,...yeah riiiiight. No dice there. If they had been real friends, they would have understood how even one lone person felt, and they wouldn't have said "You're ALONE in that" I mean what friend tells another friend that they're alone? Obviously not a friend and never was. I couldn't do that to someone. I just couldn't do that. But I'm not a cruel dickweed, either.

Anyone can be a fake sweet person with a fake sweet act. They can support everyone on a forum and pour sugar out all over the place in a trail of dandy-pansy goo and sticky uckiness. It's them I fear! Because when everyone's back is turned they turn into a big scary werewolf and I'm being looked at like I'm lunch.